X-ray equipment has been extensively used for nondestructive testing of various products including the inspection of welds to locate voids and other flaws which might lead to failure of the welded product. Such inspection has been required for acceptance of large diameter pipe for high pressure transportation of hazardous materials such as gas and oil fuels, but has been very slow and expensive because of the time required for making each of a sequence of photographs of the X-ray shadow picture.
The object of this invention accordingly is to automate the inspection of welds and at the same time to decrease the time and cost required and increase the precision of the operation.
Another object is to provide equipment which can be coordinated with other inspection techniques, such as ultrasonic monitoring.